1 of 10The case against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev is coming to a climax. The affair revolves around alleged irregularities in the 1994 privatisation of fertiliser firm Apatit, based in Russia's inhospitable far north.

2 of 10The Khibin mountains, reckoned to be the oldest range in Europe, hide a vast amount of minerals.

3 of 10Apatit was founded in 1929 to exploit the Khibin range's mineral wealth. Its mines were built by prisoners.

4 of 10After 75 years of exploration, the central open-cast mine reached as deep as 350 metres.

5 of 10The bedrock is dynamited every week. In the 1980s, even nuclear blasts were used for the exploration.